When it comes to comic books, one name says it all: Stan Lee. His characters are classics. His industry knowledge is vast. His creativity is boundless. And now, he's sharing what he knows with you, Grasshopper! His cohorts have always been--and still are--some of the best in the business: Jack Kirby, John Romita, Sr., Neal Adams, Gil Kane, Mike Deodato, Jr., Frank Cho, and Jonathan Lau, and many others, Stan includes their work here and discusses what exactly makes it so great. He touches on all the important stuff: anatomy, foreshortening, perspective, action, penciling, inking, hand lettering vs. digital lettering, color, character and costume design, panel flow, materials and tools, computers, file formats, and software. He includes an overview of the history and development of the comic book industry, and there's an extensive section on various types of covers--the super important element that makes the reader want to pick up that comic! In a world where good battles evil at every turn and the hero fights valiantly to get the girl, no stone is left unturned! Here you'll also find info on all the small details--that really aren't so small: word balloons, thought balloons, whisper balloons, bursts, sound effect lettering, and splash pages! And KA-BLAMMM! . . . once you've created your art, then what? Lest you think Stan would turn you out into the wilderness without a road map, fellow traveler, there's also information on preparing and submitting your portfolio, on getting work, and on suggested reading and schools. Stan Lee's How to Draw Comics features a cover that reunites long time collaborator John Romita Sr. and original cover artist of How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way . John Romita Sr. was most famous for his collaboration on The Amazing Spider-Man with Stan Lee!

It's time for a new approach . . . "a cornucopia of cutting-edge, techno-savvy instructions to lead you down the freshly laid yellow brick road of creativity." It's time for a book that takes you on the new journey of creating comic books for the 21st century and beyond! Excelsior!

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Page 10, 3rd column, 3rd paragraph: “superheroes” is divided up between the 2nd and 3rd line but is missing the hyphen.

Page 14: Caption states “1940” for Detective Comics #27, but the cover of that issue on page 15 shows “May,1939”.

Page 40: 2nd caption seems to describe the shapes for the body on page 41 rather than the face on page 40.

Page 46: “characters’ necks” ? The close up on the right does not even show that character’s neck. The horizon line appears to be at the bottom of the nose.

Page 78: Superheroes are described as 9 heads high, but the chart is confusing. The caption states the man on the right as heroic proportions. If we look at the line on the top of his head, it’s labeled 9. But the line labeled as 1 head high is actually at the bottom of his feet, which is the baseline (0 heads high). On the other hand, if the numbers represent the spaces between the lines, then that bottom space is indeed 1 head high. But then that would make the man of heroic proportion only 8 heads high, not 9.

Page 117: The words in panel 4 states, “Hurtling past the towering figure, the soaring surfer enmeshes his inhuman foe in a glowing cocoon of shimmering, seething energy.” Since I can only see this one page of the entire graphic novel and not what happens next, I can only assume (based on the words in panel 4) this panel in depicting Galactus in the glowing cocoon. But in the description located on the lower left of the page, it says the glowing effect is around the Silver Surfer, not Galactus. (As I said, I don’t know what happens next in this graphic novel so this may or may not be correct.)

Page 145: Paragraph 4. Hours later, what you see “below”. Should be “above”.

Page 150: Caption states Fantastic Four #63, but at the top of the art board, it says Fantastic Four #61.

Page 188: In the script for panel 1 and the beginning of panel 4, the woman’s name is Julie. But in the 2nd half of the script for panel 4, her name is now Chris.

Page 224: I did not proofread the index page, but a couple of entries caught my attention:

Banzai Girls, 44,102,114,208-209 : The book only mentions Banzai Girls on page 102, not the other pages. On page 44, the art is credited to Jonathan Lau, but the only Banzai Girls comic I’m familiar with is by Jinky Coronado. (This may or may not be an error depending on if Jonathan Lau also draws a comic called Banzai Girls). Page 114 is Re-Animator, not Banzai Girls. Page 208-209 is Red Sonja, not Banzai Girls.

Francisco, Tina, 41 : Only one page is credited to her. Based on the last paragraph on page 36, the index should credit her for pages 36 - 41.

The following are suggestions:

Page 86: Six lines from the bottom of the page. “sword-wielding arm”. Since this is Thor, how about “hammer-wielding arm”?

Page 131: “work involved is 100 percent thinking and 10 percent drawing”. In sports they like to talk about giving a hundred and ten percent, but division of labor is like dividing up a whole pie. A person can’t have half (50 percent) of the whole pie if someone else already took three quarters (75 percent) of the pie. The pie would have to start out as 125 percent for it to add up, but that's not possible since a whole pie is restricted to being 100 percent of the whole pie. Perhaps the phrase in the book would be better stated as “work involved is 90 percent thinking and 10 percent drawing”.

Page 208: At the top of the page, the character with Red Sonja is described as a sorcerer. Since the character is a woman, how about calling her a sorceress?

Page 218: 2nd column, lines 8 and 9. “full-sized photocopies of several different pencilers to ink.” This sounds like the photocopies are of the pencilers themselves. How about rewording it as “photocopies BY several…..” ?

Front cover: Wolverine is too tall. Thing is suppose to have 3 fingers.

this was very helpful! i HIGHLY recommend it if you are looking to start writing comics for business, or even just doodling them. if you want to learn how to do it really well, i highly recommend this book.

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Summary

Product Description In this signed and numbered limited edition of Stan Lee's How to Draw Comics, Stan Lee reveals his secrets for: * Costumes * Penciling, Inking & Coloring * Lettering & Word Balloons * Digital Advances * Perspective & Foreshortening * What Makes Great Action * Page & Panel Layout * Covers * Creating a Portfolio * Getting Work When it comes to comic books, one name says it all: Stan Lee. His characters are classics. His industry knowledge is vast. His creativity is boundless. And now, he’s sharing what he knows with you, Grasshopper! His cohorts have always been-and still are-some of the best in the business: Jack Kirby, John Romita, Sr., Neal Adams, Gil Kane, Mike Deodato, Jr., Frank Cho, and Jonathan Lau, and many others, Stan includes their work here and discusses what exactly makes it so great. He touches on all the important stuff: anatomy, foreshortening, perspective, action, penciling, inking, hand lettering vs. digital lettering, color, character and costume design, panel flow, materials and tools, computers, file formats, and software. He includes an overview of the history and development of the comic book industry, and there’s an extensive section on various types of covers-the super important element that makes the reader want to pick up that comic! In a world where good battles evil at every turn and the hero fights valiantly to get the girl, no stone is left unturned! Here you’ll also find info on all the small details-that really aren’t so small: word balloons, thought balloons, whisper balloons, bursts, sound effect lettering, and splash pages! And KA-BLAMMM! . . . once you’ve created your art, then what? Lest you think Stan would turn you out into the wilderness without a road map, fellow traveler, there’s also information on preparing and submitting your portfolio, on getting work, and on suggested reading and schools. As Stan himself says, much has changed since his groundbreaking How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way came out. It’s time for a new approach . . . “a cornucopia of cutting-edge, techno-savvy instructions to lead you down the freshly laid yellow brick road of creativity.” It’s time for a book that takes you on the new journey of creating comic books for the 21st century and beyond! Excelsior!